From suckuz to Manila

'Suckuz, does anybody here wan' ice-col' suckuz?' calls the frozen lolly man as he sidles through the compartment before the train leaves the station. The Metrorail from Cape Town to Simon's Town is a unique experience. You have to know the route because you can't see very well out of the windows, smothered in graffiti. In any case even if you could see out there are few signs on the station platforms and they're easy to miss, especially if the trains are full. The 39 km ride is scheduled to take about 70 minutes but it's pretty variable. A sign on the station wall states that 78% of the trains make it on time. Sometimes the scheduled train simply doesn't show up; at other times several arrive within a few minutes. The best section is the leg from Muizenberg to Simon's Town, along the edge of False Bay. I love this bit. At Muizies I can check the swell and surf, especially if the wind is right and see how many guys are out there catching waves. The stations have these names from SA's past: Dutch like Muizenberg, mixed Dutch and English like Fish Hoek and Kalk Bay, Scottish like Glencairn. The very last bit has several twists and turns and the old carriages creak, squeak, screech and squeal at a snail's pace. Then it's Simon's Town at the end of the line, back in the Deep South. Kalk Bay is a fishing harbour with an interesting connection to the Philippines. In the 1840s a Filipino ship was wrecked off Cape Point and the survivors settled at Kalk Bay to be joined by others over the years. Being Catholics they established the nearby St James church and their descendants still live in the area today. The QSL is from the Far East Broadcasting Co in Manila, heard on shortwave way back in 1966, one of my very first.